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Can Sound Therapy Help You?

 

A meditation gong is a new form of relaxation technique in western society, but they have been used for many centuries in other cultures, though they are still very exotic and misunderstood in our culture.   Not only have these instruments been used by many ancient cultures for various reasons, which means they have an interesting and varied past, they are also a very unique instrument in general.  They first began as a religious tool, dating back before Buddhism and Shamanism, they were later, gradually used by Tibetan and Zen Buddhists for meditative practices.   Not just Buddhists use these gongs these days, now a wide variety of people are using these gongs for both cultural and spiritual practices, this has made them especially popular with the New Age Movement.

 

The two basic types of Vibrational Sound Association meditation gongs are either suspended gongs or singing bowls.  Suspended gongs consist of a round piece of metal that is suspended between two poles; these are what people normally think of, when they think of a meditation gong.  On the other hand, most people have probably never even heard of a singing bowl, as they are something completely different.   It produces sound by either stroking it or by running a specially made mallet around the rim, plus it is obviously a bowl shape.  A similarity between each type of meditation gong is that they are each typically made of bronze, copper or other common metal. 

 

Even though there are many uses for a VSA Singing Bowl training meditation gong, we will only go over a few during this article.  The first thing is that either gong can be used for an individual or a group meditation session.  Most of the time people use gongs to ritually mark the start and end points of a meditation session, but other people actually use them to meditate to the sounds they make.  Considering the sounds and tones they produce are believed to correct the imbalances of a person's mind and body, aside from VSA Singing Bowl workshops meditation practices, they are also said to have healing powers.  To heal their mind and body over time, when someone uses a gong, it is commonly referred to as taking a "gong bath".  Yoga is another place where gongs are being used, in this sense, there are meant to induce feelings of well-being and relaxation during the process.  If you are someone that is looking for help with their stress and relaxation, maybe a meditation gong is a tool that you should try.

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